Numerous machines have been devised for supporting a motor vehicle tire in an upright position, spreading opposed bead regions of the tire to expose its interior to inspection, and rotating the tire to progressively inspect the interior of the entire tire carcass.
One of the earlier such machines is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,863,764, granted Jun. 21, 1932, to W. G. Prentice for "Tire Machine". This machine supports the tire in an elevated position above the floor at a comfortable working height for the person inspecting the tire. Such an arrangement, although possibly satisfactory for inspecting lightweight passenger car tires, places a tremendous burden on persons trying to lift a heavy truck tire onto the machine.
It was inevitable that some inventor would devise a mechanism for assisting the operator inspector in lifting the tire onto the inspection machine. U.S. Pat. No. 4,160,537, granted Jul. 10, 1979, to L. A. Severson for "Tire Spreading and Inspecting Machine" discloses a pneumatically powered lift for this purpose. Another approach to solving the problem of lifting heavy tires is represented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,542,340, granted Nov. 24, 1970, to J. Peisl for "Apparatus for the Control and Examination of Wheel Tires". This inventor separates the tire support and rotating apparatus from the bead spreading apparatus. The support apparatus is made movable from a lower, loading position to a raised, inspecting position by mounting it on a pneumatic lift. Unfortunately, this considerably complicates the construction of the bead spreading apparatus inasmuch as it must be moved out of the way of the tire as the tire is elevated.
Arne Hjorth-Hansen in his U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,163, granted Jul. 7, 1987, for "Tire Handling Apparatus" discloses another approach to tire inspection. Hjorth-Hansen incorporates the tire supporting and rotating apparatus in a fairly low profile box which also supports the bead spreading apparatus. Because the tire supporting structure is a fairly short distance above the floor, the inventor suggests that the tire can be bounced onto the support over a forward protruding edge member. This maneuver can be awkward with very heavy truck tires.
Lastly, in an inspection machine identified as the Branick AH/RI, manufactured by Branick Industries, Inc. of Fargo, N.D., a ramp member is pivotally hung to the front of the support structure to assist in loading the tire onto the support. The ramp serves no useful purpose when the tire is in place and elevated to working height.